Muggle Day
by Madhatter1981
Summary: Harry and Hermione being from the non-magical world feel it necessary to expose their children to the world that they grew up in to make sure that they had a rounded education of what the world really is like. Also to keep their children from having the standard reaction to the non-magical world that so many of their contemporaries have.
1. Chapter 1

**Muggle Day**

**A/N****:** There is Weasley bashing in this; and probably will be in all of my post HP7 book stories.

"Rose, Hugo, are you ready to go we're going to meet your Uncle Harry and James, Albus and Teddy in half an hour." Hermione Weasley shouted to her children from the kitchen of the modest house she and Ron owned, although it was more owned by her than Ron; given that Ron never finished school, like she and Harry did, after everything settled down from Harry killing Voldemort. Hermione, while realizing that this was a cause of tension between her and Ron didn't know what to do, given that Ron hadn't wanted to go back to Hogwarts to finish his education, thinking that he would be just given everything for being "A Hero of the Second Voldemort War" like he thought Harry was treated.

Further from the truth couldn't be a better term to use to describe how Ron was treated against how he thought he should be. Ron felt that just because he had some hardships (brothers being good at school to the point that he was thought of as a disappointment that he wasn't at their level when he was at Hogwarts, best friend having a small fortune when his family was raising seven children on a one family income leading to being teased for owning hand me down items) his every wish should be attended to.

In talking to Harry about this, Hermione had to wonder what Ron would have been like if he had to live the life similar to what Harry had to after his parents died. Thinking about it Hermione felt that Ron would have turned out better than Harry did given that he still had loving siblings to look out for him. To an extent Hermione sort of wished that had happened given all of the behavior problems with Ron she had to deal with due to his mother babying him and his expectations of being treated the same by his wife, something Hermione was quick to debase him of much to the redhead's annoyance. One of Hermione's greatest regrets was marrying the redhead; she had thought that Ron's immaturity was just a temporary thing brought on by his youth and he would grow out of it in time, boy was she wrong.

To no ones surprise, and Hermione's great disappointment Ron was a failure at working at the joke shop. He expected to just be able to laze around and get paid because of his 'family connection'. George was about to fire Ron, during the process of telling main shareholder Harry about it during a meeting about how the store was doing, Harry suggested using Ron as a tester for pranks before they went out on the shelves. The grin on George's face would have sent Ron running to clean up his act and behave like a model employee.

Ron's use of a test dummy caused a good number of problems in the Weasley family, first from Hermione then the rest of the family. When Hermione took a look at what her husband looked like coming home from his first day at work at WWW she ran to the floo and fire-called George to chew him out for his treatment of his youngest brother. George calmly explained that Ron didn't want to do anything at the store, yet expected to be paid more than a starting rate plus taking any weazes that he wanted without having to pay for it. Continuing George explained that given Ron lack of grades or interest in learning made it impossible for him to be trusted in the R&amp;D part of WWW due to the fact that it was a highly Charms and Potions driven set up, two things that Ron was abysmal at. After getting off of the floo with George, Hermione was shock to realize that in "helping" Ron during their time at Hogwarts she significantly stunted his growth magically.

The fact that Hermione's job made it so she worked long days, coming home on average at six every night, leaving Ron to have to look after the children when they got out of muggle primary school, something that rankled him as being "women's work". When he complained about Hermione to Harry during one of their "boys night out" as Hermione referred to it, Harry told him that he was a fool who expected to ride on the coattails of either himself or Hermione and didn't like that things hadn't turned out the way he expected them to. When the conversation got back to Ginny and Molly at one of the regular Weasley family dinners Harry's response was different than what they were expecting; having been raised in a household where all of the men were cowed by Molly neither Ginny nor Molly expected any real opposition to what they wanted to happen becoming a reality, Harry's response challenged that assumption.

"You failed Ron by cosseting him so much when he was a small child, to his detriment. If you had told him to fight back against his brothers and not constantly fix all of his problems for him instead of letting him do it for himself he would not be the lazy lay about that thinks that the world owes him and he shouldn't have to work for it. Instead we have a Ron who thinks the world should be handed to him on a golden platter and that he shouldn't have to work for anything that he wants. To be honest Ron reminds me of what Draco Malfoy might have turned out like based on the way that he behaved when I first met him." Harry told the two female Weasleys.

To say that his statement was inflammatory was like saying that water is wet; true but not expansive enough. Both Molly and Ginny starred at Harry in horrified silence at his comparison of the youngest Weasley son to the dreaded Malfoy heir. Watching them, Harry wondered if the term 'you could've knocked me over with a feather' could've applied to the two pureblood witches. Harry was right about to conjure up or transfigure some debris into a feather to test his theory when his wife and mother-in-law came out of their stupefied shock.

Her children coming down the stairs of the house that her parents gave her money to buy, as a wedding gift; the Grangers were worried that with Ron not having gone back to Hogwarts with her and Harry to complete their education his prospects in the wizarding world was limited. Luckily for Hermione, her job as a barrister working for the betterment of all sentient magical beings, as well as better relations between the magical world and the non-magical world, gave her enough money that her husband limited prospect didn't hurt them that much.

To Hermione's unfortunate consternation, Ron took this to mean that with Hermione earning enough to support their family he didn't have to work hard or even try to get a serious job. Ron spent most of his days following the Quidditch standing and applying to Quality Quidditch Supplies. Hermione, while she thought that working for a Quidditch supply store was a waste of Ron talents and a rather juvenile job, was rather surprised that Ron wasn't hired given that quidditch was all that Ron wanted to talk about if left to his own devices.

Unbeknownst to Hermione and Ron, the head of the European Quidditch League had followed the second war against Voldemort; and while he would have hired either Harry or Hermione within a heartbeat if either of them showed the interest in playing professionally (or didn't have acrophobia in Hermione's case) he couldn't hire the youngest Weasley son. A Quidditch team had to be able to trust the people flying with them and given that Weasley "betrayed" his supposed best friends it was agreed by the owners of the teams in the EQL that Ronald Weasley would never by associated in any sense with British Quidditch, even to the extent of working for a Quidditch supply store in Diagon Alley.

This led to Ron working a menial job under the command of his brother George, who was employing his youngest brother out of fondness towards Hermione more than anything else, and to get his mum to shut up. Merlin but that woman could put a banshee to shame when she got going; and she kept asking why he (George) didn't come by and visit that often.

"Mum?" The questioning look from her son Hugo made Hermione turn her focus to something that was much more important than the family she had married into or her poor life choices, her children.

Of her children Hugo looked more like a Granger than a Weasley, something that caused much consternation from Molly, Hermione didn't care though. Shorter than most of his cousins with bushy brown hair and glasses Hugo Weasley was the spiting image of her grandpa Granger, at least as much as Hermione could remember of boyhood pictures of her grandfather that she had seen when she would go to visit him when she was a little girl before she learned she was a witch. While Molly might be annoyed that all of her grandchildren weren't the spitting image of a "proper" Weasley, Hermione was pleased to see some of her genes making their way into the wizarding world. Turning her attention back to the matter at hand she addressed her son.

"Yes Hugo?"

"If we're still meeting Uncle Harry and James and Al we need to leave shortly, mum." Hugo said. While Hugo looked the part of a nerd or bookworm and didn't quite see the appeal of Quidditch, something that had led to many an argument between Hermione and Ron, he wasn't against going off exploring with his cousins and coming home dirty and scratched up, something that was easily fixed with magic. And he loved his Uncle Harry, due to the fact that Harry, unlike his father and paternal Grandma didn't mind having a quite introspective child around the house.

Looking around her front parlor Hermione mentally ran over the checklist of things she took with her when she made an outing into the world that she came from; trainers, jeans, jumpers; check. Correct ID that would pass muster in Muggle world; check. Muggle money obtained from Gringotts at a heavy fee; check, Hermione deposited roughly a third of her paycheck in a separate account set up for these excursions. It saddened her that her husband and his family (i.e. Molly, Percy and Ginny) didn't find it strange that she deposited a paycheck that was a third less than other pureblood wizards in her department, when in fact due to how she had rising higher in rank than Ron she got roughly two thirds more annually than Ronald. Harry knew about this but Hermione swore him to secrecy.

Letting out a call for her daughter Rose and hearing her footsteps on the floor Hermione took her son's hand and walked towards the parlor. As they entered the parlor Rose skidded in from the dinning room. Biting her lip Hermione didn't say anything about her daughters habit of disrespecting the house rules by running and roughhousing though it. The few times she had tried to discipline Rose over it Ron had come behind her and overturned the punishment without talking to her about it. When she tried to talk to Ron about why she was punishing Rose in the first place it just descended into an argument of why she wasn't more like Molly. After one such argument Hermione wondered why she spent so much time trying to win Ron's affections from Lav, as her husband still referred to his school girlfriend, if she had known that Ron was never going to grow up she would have gift wrapped the redheaded wizard for the ditzy blonde slut, in hindsight they were a much better pair.

Getting a better look at her daughter Hermione bit back a groan of frustration; Rose hadn't changed into the muggle close that Hermione had put aside for the days she and Harry took their children out into the muggle world. Thinking on it Hermione realized that Rose had spent the last weekend with her Weasley grandparents at Ron's insistence. Taking a deep breath to gird herself for the coming argument Hermione addressed her daughter.

"Rosie, why aren't you in the clothes that I put out for you to wear today?" Hermione questioned her daughter in what she thought of as a polite tone of voice.

"Gran Weasley said that as a witch I shouldn't be wearing such muggle rags." Rose replied as if her answer was from the font of all knowledge. Hermione had to take a couple of deep breaths and recite some Arithmancy equations so as to not apperate over to the Burrow and kill her mother in law. Molly Weasley had never tried to hide her dislike of muggles but Hermione always put that down to Molly's having to constantly deal with Arthur's fondness if mistaken understanding of non magical people, to hear her own daughter speak so horribly of her mother's parents made Hermione wonder where she had gone wrong as a mother in raising her children.

The fact that she had married into such a potentially racist, bigoted (as opposed to ignorant and unknowing of how much their comments could hurt) family came as a shock to Hermione and made her wonder why the redhead matriarch was as supportive of Hermione and Ron's relationship as she appeared to be. What Hermione never considered was that Molly, although displeased with her youngest son affections with the pushy muggleborn encouraged it, to keep Harry free for Ginny, not because she thought that the witch and her son made such a good pair. After thinking about what she learned from her daughter Hermione called the young girl to her, when Rose got there Hermione started to lay down the law.

"Rosaline Hermione Weasley", Hermione didn't want to give her daughter her first name as her daughter's middle name feeling that the name was somewhat antiquated and weighty; something that she had quite a few arguments with her mother-in-law about once they learned that her and Ron were having a daughter, given how her daughter was now acting Hermione wished that she had pushed a little hard in how her children where raised.

"I am your mother; I clothe you, feed you and keep a roof over your head and while you are a minor you are to do as I say. Your grandmother may like things done a certain way when you are visiting her and that's her right but if I ever hear you disrespect me and my parents, your maternal grandparents again I will take every magical thing that you own including your signed poster of the Hollyhead Harpies and burn them to ash replacing them with purely mundane replacement. Do I make myself clear?" While Hermione didn't like being such a "Hard arse" she felt that it was important to impose boundaries and structure on her children early on so that they don't turn into …. well her husband not to put to fine a point on it. Seeing Rose's horrified look Hermione felt that her daughter understood where things stood from now on. Modulating her tone slightly Hermione finished her conversation with her daughter so that they could go meet Harry and her nephews.

"Now go up to your room and change into the clothes that I set out for you and we can go meet up with your uncle and cousins and start our day, ok Rosie." Hermione commanded to her daughters back who started to go to her room shortly after her mother started to lay down the law.

Checking on Hugo who was in the sitting room reading a quidditch magazine; Hermione, while making sure she had everything she needed, started to outline the "conversation" she planned on having with her mother in law in the near future. While she could bite her tongue and bear comments that reflected badly on her upbringing in general, given that she had choose to make a life in the wizarding world after she graduated from Hogswart when the school opened back up after the fallout from the conclusion of The Second Voldemort War had settled, Hermione refused to let her children talk badly about people that loved and cared about them even if they weren't able to perform magic.

Hearing Rose coming into the sitting room Hermione turned to greet her and was dismayed with what she saw; the nice skirt and jumper that she had set out for Rose to wear was ripped and in tatters just hanging off her daughter. A daughter that had a rather smug Ron like look on her face, clearly thinking that she had out smarted her mother and was going to get her way.

"OK mum I put on the clothes that you put out for me, let's go meet up with everyone." Rose said in a sacrin sweet tone of voice. Hermione's eyes narrowed at the disrespect she was getting from her daughter. With a flick of her wand and a quick _Reparo_ the clothes that Rose were wearing was back to being in pristine condition and fitting her daughter correctly. Ignoring Rose glaring at her, Hermione took Hugo's hand and headed towards the floo. Getting to the fireplace Hermione situated Hugo in front of it and told him to stand there, she then went to address her daughter.

"Rosalind" Hermione said in a sweeter more compassionate tone than she had before, "you are my daughter, a girl that has come from two people from quite different backgrounds, this I will admit. While you can do magic and that is a good and important part of your heritage you also come from a line of family that either never had any magical ability or, more likely a family that was descendent from a long line of squibs who had to figure out how to live without magic and prosper besides that fact that they didn't have any of the perks you have and the most recent of those people, your grandparents came together to create me, and then through me, you." Seeing the contemplative look on her daughter's face Hermione continued.

"Your constantly taking everything your Grandmum Weasley says as truth is a disservice to your ability to decide things on your own. While there is nothing wrong with getting the opinion of those that have gone through life before you and gained experience from it you must take their advice and judge it through your own experiences. I hope if you take nothing else from my being your mother you take this, something that took me until it was to late for it to do any good to learn." Rose, shocked and confused by what her mother was saying agrees to her request. Seeing that her daughter was trying to take what she was saying to heart Hermione smiled and addressed both of her children.

"So who's ready to see your Potter relatives?" At the cheers that came from Rose and Hugo Hermione smiled sadly to herself while she went to meet up with the man she should have been with, she could finally admit that now. Not that she would ever tell her parents and give them more ammunition in their dislike of Ron. Hermione's parent's dislike of their son-in-law was so great that the last time that Hermione had talked to them about him their response was to tell her about some new dentistry techniques that they had learned at a conference that they needed a willing test subject to practice on. After that discussion Hermione never brought up her husband nor made him go with her and the children when she went to visit her parents.

**A/N****: **Please review and tell me what you think of this. Thanx, Mad.


	2. Chapter 2

**Pt. 2**

**A/N****:** Weasley bashing. If you like Ginny _**Don't**_ read this (considering that I had hoped that she was going to die before the seventh book was over it should give you a good idea of my feelings for her).

**A/N 2****: **To those of you who discount the above a/n while I realize that there is little to no proof besides Ron's behavior when faced with Harry's wealth to suggest that any of the rest of the Weasley family is money grubbing I'm writing Ginny that way because to be perfectly honest I hate the character, think that of all of the characters in the HP universe she should have died and anytime I can do her a bad turn I'm going to. You have been warned.

Ginny Potter née Weasley liked to think of herself as a level headed person, nearly everybody else that had ever met her would disagree with that assessment but it wasn't Ginny's fault that everyone she knew used faulty reasoning. Sure she was stubborn and opinionated but that was necessary being the youngest of a seven children family. If you were to ask any of her brothers (well, save Percy and Ron) they would say that Ginny was spoiled due to being the baby of the family growing up and never suffered nearly as much as any of her other siblings.

Ginny on the other hand would say that she had suffered plenty what with being possessed by Tom Riddle/Voldemort in her first year at Hogwarts and how it cast a pall over the whole rest of her time there. Harry was under the opinion that Ginny used the whole "Voldemort possessed me when I was a first year and I'm emotionally scared from it so you have to let me do/have what I want" argument too much and quite often told her so when he thought she was getting to into her "pity me because I've have such a hard life/childhood" routine. This lead to numerous fights that made Harry thankful for the creation of silencing charms so that his children didn't have to hear their parents arguing.

It was quite a shock, the start of her marriage with Harry, who quickly put his foot down and laid down the law. Ginny having been the youngest of seven siblings as well as the first female Weasley in eons had grown to like and expect the attention that she had gotten from that classification. The fact that to most of her classmate all years and house considered her one of the most attractive witches at Hogwarts during her time there didn't help Ginny either. Most of life, for one reason or another the way people acted towards her gave little Ginny Weasley a rampant princess complex and overgrown sense of entitlement something that Harry was quick to debase her of once they got married. Even before they got married really, Ginny just never realized it at the time.

To Ginny's great annoyance, Harry didn't have any interest in going out and being seen by his loving public. Harry if he was asked would say that he'd rather spend his time with good friends and family then going out and pandering to a bunch of people he'd never met, or if he had met them they acted like screaming lemmings, something that Ginny loved to do. Also, Harry remembered all to well how fickle his fame was during his school years and wasn't in any hurry to revisit it as an adult.

To be quite honest; Harry was just too muggle for Ginny, something that the "poor girl" realized after they were already married. It was interesting to Harry how all of his friends in the wizarding world who were born and raised in said world didn't see Harry as anything other than a proper pureblood with a few strange quirks. Harry saw himself as more of a muggleborn like Hermione than any other classification due to living with his aunt and uncle for the first seventeen years of his life, save one. The fact that he was technically born to parents both from the wizarding world is somewhat unimportant if he was raised in a non-magical environment, specifically told that there was no such thing as magic, which led to his re-introduction to the magical world being more like a muggleborn's introduction, something that no one really thought about when they heard Harry's story.

And don't get her started about Harry's godson; she had enough time around children growing up that she didn't really see why she would want one more around. With what Hermione had told her about people who were raised in an abusive household, Ginny figured that Harry wouldn't even want to have children due to the risk that he might treat them like he was treated by his uncle, cousin and his cousin's friends. The fact that he was so eager to be a father nearly made Ginny back out of their planned wedding, but she consoled herself with the fact that nannies and house-elves were around for raising the brats while she would still be able to reap the benefits of being the wife of Britain's favorite son. All of Ginny's hopes and plans of how she would "raise" her children where ruined after Andromeda Tonks died.

It didn't take anytime at all for Harry to move Teddy into their home after Andromeda died, and with out asking her to boot. When she went to "talk" to Harry about his making decisions without asking her about it the discussion did not go the way she had planned. Harry appeared confused by Ginny's annoyance towards Harry's hands on parenting of Teddy, he gently remind her that having Teddy live with them for a couple of years before hand would be good training for when they have their own children. That's when Ginny nearly went nuclear.

Ginny screamed at Harry that she had no intention of having any snot nosed kids around the house and that having Teddy move in was a major imposition to how she planned to live her life and if he thought that she would allow him to ruin all of her hard work then he had another thing coming. Harry got very still and very silent then causing Ginny, for one of the first times, to become afraid of her husband. She became even more afraid of him when he gave a dark chuckle. She would remember what he said next till the day she died.

"Well I'm sorry to hear that Ginevra but you really don't have a choice in the matter to be honest. If you recall the marriage contract that you and Molly insisted that Hermione and I signed, it stated that a minimum number of children had to be produced by each pairing or at the vary least a "game effort" must be attempted to bring about a suitable number of heirs. Now to calm some of your fears I don't want us to have as many children as your parents, three would be the minimum that I am going for." Ignoring Ginny suddenly pale and blanched face Harry continued.

"Of course by three I mean two boys (one each for the Potter and Black heirs) and a girl if our first three don't turn out like this then we can look things over, but make no mistake, I will not let any of the former Blacks get control of any of _my_ fortune and try to bring about something like Voldemort again." Harry finished with his eyes alight in nobility.

While Ginny could agree losing the money, especially to someone who could restart all of the 'war of blood purity' nonsense again would be bad, she couldn't help but notice that Harry spoke of the Potter and Black fortune as his, something that annoyed Ginny considerably, no matter how true it was.

It almost came to pass that Harry was going to lose his fortune because of what went down between him, Hermione and Ron in Gingotts during her sixth year at Hogwarts. After the dust had settled over The Second Voldemort War, Harry was summoned to Gringotts by the goblins. There he was told that all of his assets where to be seized. When Harry asked why he was told due to willful and malicious destruction of a branch of Gringotts and theft of one of their dragons. Harry agreed that while he did liberate a dragon and use it to escape from Gringotts by way of blasting out various walls, he contended that he did that only after he was betrayed by a goblin that he had saved from Voldemort's forces and asked to act as a guide to help him get his property as Lord Black from the vault of his disgraced family member as soon as possible.

When Harry was asked to explain he calmly stated that as Sirius Black, who due to the fact he was never given the benefit of a trial, was still Lord Black even after he was incarcerated as the goblins well knew otherwise they never would have allowed money from the Black vault to be used to buy a broomstick five years ago during the Christmas holidays, named him his heir he had every right to go into the vault of one of his tried and incarcerated family members to retrieve something placed within. Harry further explained that the only reason he snuck in with Griphook to do the deed under the cover of secrecy was that he was a wanted man at the time and, while he believed the goblins to be honorable and trustworthy he was worried that the banks non-goblin employees who might be around would betray him to Voldemort.

Aside from Harry's claims allowing him access to his money again, it unearthed three Voldemort supporters; two marked, one not. When being turned over to the DMLE the goblins required that whatever the outcome of the wizard's enquiry the three criminals be turned back over to Gringotts at the end of the outcome to face goblin justice. Upon learning this, the three traitors confessed voluntarily of their crimes in hope of a lesser and purely magical punishment. Instead they were first incarcerated in Azkaban for a ten year period then sent to the goblins for their subsequent punishment. It's said that late at night if you listen closely you can still hear the traitors' screams from the vengeance that was wrought upon them.

After knowing that Harry hadn't lost all of his money and the Potters were still one of the richest families in Britain; Ginny set out to restart her relationship with Harry. Surprisingly, it didn't take any love potion this time to snare "The-Defeater-of-You-Know-Who", a name that greatly annoyed Harry not just due to the hyphens but also because the wizarding world _still_ couldn't say Voldemort's name. Harry was so dog tired with everything that had happened over the course of the year he just slipped back into a relationship with Ginny more or less by rote, including proposing to her. While Ginny wanted this, there were some problems with the arrangement.

It would appear that the standard Potter wedding contract contained a clause stating that the Potter fortune was not to be touched except in states of emergency (including a six month stipend) until a time of three to five years after the date the wedded union had passed. This was written as an encouragement to the Potter heir and their mate to go out and make something of themselves in the world before sitting back on their laurels and draining moneys from the family coffers. There was another stipulation in the contract saying that if either of the couple came from muggle backgrounds they could teach their children about the world that they spent their childhood in if they so wish. When Ginny read these after signing the betrothal contract she fainted with horror.

Upon coming to, Ginny set out to the best legal minds in the wizarding world the firm of Dewey, Skrewum and Howe to try to get a better grip on the marriage contract she was presented with. Her meeting didn't go the way she expected it to go.

The first problem that Ginny encountered in her quest to get the Potter marriage contract tossed out was that the firm that she had gone to had been the legal representative for the Potter family since the time of The Founders. The firm of Dewey, Skrewum and Howe, one of the oldest if not the oldest legal establishment in wizarding Britain, retainers to the Potters since the firm opened its doors the legends went. The barrister that Ginny had gone to had explained to her that she didn't have any recourse in regards to the contract and had to abide by its terms or suffer a rather large penalty to try to get out of it, and even then the barrister couldn't assure that they would get what they wanted out of the motion they were discussing bringing against the Potter family.

Once Ginny heard that in order to extricate herself from the passage in the marriage contract that she found distasteful she would have to accuse Harry in open court of a false claim, something that could easily backfire on her if Harry used his families' retainer to fight her. Realizing that she didn't have much wiggle room, Ginny swallowed her pride and began to really read the contract to see what the minimum amount of brats she would have to give birth to was. While dismayed that the contract has what had become the standard "heir and a spare" clause, what really annoyed Ginny was that she was expected to birth three children at the very least as the contract held an additional clause that stated that the couple was to try for a girl as well. In a rage Ginny went to her family's barrister as the Weasley's had regained some of their lost prominence and power in the years that Voldemort had been defeated, for good this time.

The Weasley's barrister John Archibald, was of no help to Ginny as he confirmed everything that the contract said was legal and valid. Archibald was glad that his father, a former Auror made all of his children learn what he referred to as the bare minimum of protection while on their summer breaks from Hogwarts. The little redhead's wand was in her hand and she was casting curse after curse upon the barrister before he had much of a chance to react.

While the aurors were called, they took Ginny away for questioning, however nothing much came out of it with so many of the auror force feeling that with how much the Weasley family did to end the second Voldemort war that any infraction in the law that they commit, short of purposely and willingly planning someones death was to be overlooked. This led barrister Archibald to get in contact with the goblins and pay a truly obscene fee to have charges set against Ginny Potter through Gringotts that forced her to pay a fine to John Archibald for conduct unbecoming of a client of the firm that handled the Weasley's business.

Shaking her head to clear it, Ginny Potter scowled as she heard her husband and his children, including the spawn of the werewolf that Harry insisted come and live with them, come towards the sitting room. From the sound of their voices as they got closer the children sounded quite excited to go out into the muggle world, Ginny just couldn't understand it.

"Now do you all have everything, that you need; pounds, a memo pad and pen to write down things you find interesting, James put the camera back, I know that you want to take some pictures, we'll stop be Aunt Hermione's parents and borrow their camera, alright." This almost drove Ginny out to the sitting room, to think that Harry was taking their children to be contaminated by muggles, her father's actions had shown her why that was a bad idea.

She couldn't believe that Harry was following through with this idea of Hermione's, the mudblood must have potioned her Harry. Anytime she tried to talk to Harry about his upbringing he said he was fine and didn't need to dredge up bad memories. So then why would he voluntarily go back to the environment that caused those bad memories was what Ginny was wondering. Hermione giving Harry a potion to make him agree with what she wanted was the only "logical" answer. After all when ever she and Harry went to Hogwarts she stayed as far away as she could from Myrtle's bathroom and that ghastly chamber, she couldn't believe that her brother and sister-in-law actually went down in there again.

When Ginny heard the floo activate and her niece's voice talking to Harry, she gritted her teeth. She still couldn't believe that her eldest brother married and breeded with that half-breed bringing so much shame to their family. Ginny, along with her mother, was convinced that "the veela" entering into the Weasley family was the root of the families recent misfortune, although an outsider wouldn't call it misfortune.

George had continued the joke shop that he had planed with Fred, making it bigger than Zonko's to the point that he and Angelina had put in an offer to buy Zonko's and use it as a Hogsmead WWW location five years after the second Voldemort war ended. In the last few years WWW had branched out in to France, Germany and Bulgaria using contacts that both Fleur and Viktor had in those countries ministries.

While Bill and Fleur were courting after she transferred to the English branch of Gingotts, she still kept in contact with both Harry and Viktor as all three of them had gone through such an intense experience, just with the tournament itself then with losing Cedric on top of that. Bill didn't mind this, however Ginny did consider 'the Veela's' closeness with her husband as proof that he was having an affair, and with her sister's husband to boot.

Ginny tried to hire an investigator to follow her husband and her sister-in-law but she found no takers. Fleur's allure was tamped down now that she was married but was still a part of Fleur and the witch used to get good deals while shopping, and the fact that the money she was using was still mostly Harry's and required his signature for Ginny to access the amount she needed for the investigator she wanted to hire, Ginny only had her suspicions to go with.

When Ginny finally accused Harry of infidelity, his reaction was not what she had expected. After Ginny finished presenting her "evidence", mainly all of the time that Harry spent at Bill and Fleur's cottage at Shell Beach in Tinworth, Harry just started chuckling while shaking his head, a few minutes later he began to talk in a rather condescending tone to his wife.

"Do you have any proof of you wild accusations?" Harry asked Ginny with a sardonic smile on his face. Ginny just stammered with her eyes as wide as saucers as Harry stalked towards her. Harry looked like some kind of primal animal as he came towards his wife with intent. Due to Harry's mild manner and unassuming ways, Ginny had thought that she could live the life she wanted to without any consequences, she was about to be proven wrong.

"You didn't marry me because you wanted an equal partner, you married me because I appeared to be damaged and rich and you thought that you could control me and have access to my money and name and use it to climb out of the life your parents provided for you into the life you thought that you deserved." Harry had a look on his face that Ginny had never seen before, the closest she could compare it to would be Tom after she realized that he was bad and not the friend that she thought he was. For the first time in her life Ginny was afraid of The Slayer of Voldemort, something she never thought was possible. Ginny realized that Harry was still talking and returned her attention to what he was saying.

"From now on I'm going to do what I want to and if it lines up with what you want then that's a happy accident. I will be taking the kids out into the world that I grew up in so at the very least they have a better grasp on it than your father, the so called expert." Ginny wanted to rise to her father's defense but at the look in Harry's eyes she stayed silent.

"Further more you will quite speaking badly about Hermione. Regardless of the fact that she's been a better friend to me then your brother, who deserted me twice before we were eighteen, Hermione is a muggleborn, same as my mother. Every time you make a slight against Hermione you're doing the same to my mum and I won't let you disrespect her memory like that any more. Also Fleur, regardless of being a Veela is also a tri-wizard competitor and someone that so loved your brother she uprooted her entire life to move to a country that treats her kind as little better than a second case citizen to be with him. In case you think that I'm not serious I should mention that the Daily Prophet has been sending me owls asking for an interview and your behavior is pushing me towards agreeing to their request, so unless you'd like the wizarding world to really know what our relationship is like I would temper my responses when something doesn't go your way." Harry finished.

For one of the first times Harry felt in control of his life, he was making his own decisions and choosing his own fate. If other people that he cares about don't like that he was willing to have a calm and rational discussion about the problems they were having was fine with him but he was through letting people dictate his life for him. After checking on each of his children, including Teddy, Harry went to bed and slept like a baby, not even moving when Ginny came to bed a couple of hours later, after she got her temper under control.

When Harry laid in bed before he fell asleep, he hoped that his wife would be in a slightly better mood when they woke up the next day. The fact that he was getting up two hours earlier than he did when he went into work in order to get his children ready, including wearing the correct clothes for the location that they're going to didn't make it feel like that was possible but Harry had learned to be more optimistic since he got out of Hogswart. Harry fell asleep deciding to make sure that his children have fun tomorrow regardless of the rest of what was happening tomorrow.

**A/N 3****:** Yes I realize that how I write Ginny has been written by numerous "Weasley bashers" but I'm basing my version of Ginny on how she was in the sixth book, in particular her attitude about Fleur. In regards to having her treat Hermione in a similar fashion; given that we were never given any evidence that she grew out of that behavior, (the tacked on epilogue doesn't count) I feel that I'm justified.


	3. Stonehenge

**Stonehenge**

**A/N**: The descriptions get a bit vivid once they hit Stonehenge.

As Hermione headed towards The Leaky Cauldron, where she and Harry had planned to meet with their children before going out into the muggle world, she felt a stirring of excitement at exposing her children, nieces and nephews to a new learning experience. After getting over her 'learning jitters' Hermione felt a wave of disappointment crash into her.

It saddened her that hardly anyone in her family enjoy learning like she did. Hermione sometimes wished she was as wealthy as Harry. She would just sit around and read at her leisure, secure in the knowledge that her family fortune was taking care of any monetary expensive she was incurring while she learned new things.

Seeing the head of lime green hair up ahead Hermione groaned, she told Harry to make sure Teddy knew to have either brown, black, red or blond hair, preferably one of the first three, as they were going into a non-magical place. She really didn't get males, didn't they ever stop and use some common sense, ever? Given the amount of time she had spent with her husband and best friend she was starting to think that males didn't have common sense to use.

Teddy looked over his godfather's shoulder to see his Aunt Hermione scowling at him. Smiling sheepishly, Teddy closed his eyes for a minute and like magic, his hair turned a dark chocolate brown that hung just past his ears. Upon seeing Teddy changing his hair into something less conspicuous Harry cut off his conversation with his godson and turned around, figuring that Hermione had shown up. He had told Teddy he could keep his hair 'unique' until she got there. Smiling, Teddy address Hermione.

"Hi, Auntie Hermione, are you ready to go into the muggle world?" Teddy asked with what he clearly thought was a winning tone of voice. Rolling her eyes at the metamorphmagus and sending a pointed look at her snickering best friend, Hermione ushered the group of wizards and witches into The Leaky Caldron.

After they got into Diagon Ally proper Hermione felt it was best to issue and warning and make sure that the children knew what was to be expected of them. Turning to address the mostly underage group of witches and wizards, Hermione drew herself up to her full height. When she and Harry planned these trips it was decided that Hermione would be in charge of issuing any warnings necessary on how to act in the muggle world. When she complained that it should be both of them, Harry pointed out to the annoyed Hermione that she had more experience being in these type of areas due to the trips that she had taken with her parents when she was younger. Hermione grudgingly agreed to Harry's arguments. Opening her mouth she began to talk.

"In a few minutes we will be apparating to Amesbury. Since most of you, even those who can apparate probably don't know where Amesbury is, Harry, Teddy and I will be side-along apparating you in groups so all of us can get there together. Even though we are going to a place that could be considered a magical ruin, there will probably be a large concentration of muggles there as well given that muggles have come to see Stonehenge as a tourist attraction, and don't realize the significance that Stonehenge could still have to people.

Smiling slightly at the looks of surprise and slight horror on the children's faces, especially Rose's Hermione had to bite back a chuckle. It looked like these trips might have more benefit than she'd originally thought, if just the briefing for them going into the muggle world effected the children that much.

Given Hermione a nod when she look over at him, Harry had Teddy, who had changed his hair color and style to something that wouldn't draw attention, help him get James, Albus and Lily together with Lily and a protesting James holding his hand, while Albus took Teddy's. Hermione, after a few minutes of fighting had a good grip on Rose; Hugo, who had been standing to the side, out of distance of being touched by either his mum or sister walked over and took Hermione's hand once the two witches had calmed down from their scuffle. After checking to make sure they wouldn't be leaving anything behind Harry and Hermione focused on the destination that they wanted to travel to before apparating away from The Leaky Cauldron to hopefully the first of many adventures in the muggle world.

Harry gasped after coming out of apparation. While he'd gotten used to doing it by himself, apparating with someone else, otherwise known as 'side-along apparation' made the 'tube squeezing' sensation so constricting that he felt as if he was traveling while be squeezed by an anaconda. This was not a sensation that he liked, whenever he travel with a group he preferred to go by either portkey or floo. However, given that they might have to make a quick escape from muggle law enforcement if the trip went badly it was decide that apparation was the best way to travel.

After catching his breath and making sure Hermione and the other were ok, Harry led his party out of the alleyway in Amebury that he and Hermione had decide was the best place to arrive in. Stepping to the curb, Harry flagged down a hackney and he, James, Lily, and Teddy got inside after Hermione told him she would get the next one. When planning their trips out, he and Hermione had realized that in order to travel quickly as well as to make an effort to not stand out that they should use either public transport or cabs in order to get around during their excursions into the muggle world. After telling the driver that they were going to Stonehenge the cab and as the cab pulled away, Harry glimpsed in relief, a cab pulling up in front of Hermione and her children.

After paying the cabbie, Harry took Lily and Albus' hand, with James walking beside Albus with a tethering charm keeping the two of them together, the Potters followed Hermione, Rose and Hugo as they traveled down the path towards Stonehenge in the distance. Harry had to smile as up ahead he could hear his best friend sharing some information that the two of them had found when they were doing research for the trip.

"Stonehenge was believed to have been built roughly four to five thousand years ago, in a time when magic was much more prevalent in the world to the point that it was practiced openly without reprisal from the muggles of the time. It is also thought that much of what is considered the gods of the Greek and Roman pantheon were early witches and wizards." Hermione was getting more and more animated as she warmed to the topic of imparting knowledge.

Harry's clearing of his throat brought Hermione back and made her realize that she was veering off target somewhat. Blushing in embarrassment Hermione centered herself and started again.

"The wizards of the time, known as druids, were known to preform spells and magic without the uses of wands." Hermione was gratified when the kids started to look interested "The use of rituals, including divining," here Hermione couldn't help but make a face, to Harry's great amusement, "by reading entrails, were more how magic was performed in these dark times. The only portion of it that has really carried over to modern times is the art of making potions. It is said that witches and wizards of the time were known for great feats of magic the kind that would make the acts of today's witches and wizards seem like nothing more than parlor tricks."

Harry felt pleased to see that all of the children, even Rose seemed to be hanging off of Hermione's every word. There was a reason he wanted to do Stonehenge first, and convinced Hermione when she was all set to go and have them visit the birthplace of Shakespeare and the Round Theater. With the number of detractors that they had in their own family for conceiving these trips, they need something that they could tie back into the wizarding world to get the naysayers, such as Molly and Ginny, to shut up. Harry came back from his thought to hear that his best friend was still talking.

"It is thought that King Arthur, along with his advisor Merlin, brought about an end to the use of the wandless magic which was primarily practiced by druids. Merlin, who was admitted a great war mage among his other skill, was reputed to have led an army against the druids and forced them to bend their knee to Arthur and swear to give up their secret rites and rituals and live under the yoke of Britain's tyranny. We know from scrolls that have been recovered that certain breakaway sects would gather in secret practicing in defiance of the royal edict and passing down their knowledge to apprentices who had sworn a vow of obedience to not revealing what they learn to enemy agents." The kids listened with rapt attention to what Hermione was saying.

As he stood off to the side and listened to what his best friend was saying Harry wasn't sure how much he believed. Yes this was the information that they had found; both in magical and muggle books but really given how long ago it happened who know what really went on during that time.

Still, as he listened to Hermione talk about Stonehenge Harry couldn't help smile, she had such a pure enjoyment of knowledge. While this wasn't something that he appreciated when he was in Hogwarts, with the passage of age and experience Harry had grown to enjoy and to a certain extent look forward to his friend's slightly overwrought explanations. Harry didn't know many people who seemed to just enjoy knowledge just for the sheer joy over getting to learn something new. Harry couldn't think of anyone better to expose the children to information about the muggle world than his best friend, who he had thought should have taken a job at Hogwarts, instead of the ministry.

Finishing up her preliminary speech, Hermione look to Harry to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything. With a smile Harry walked forward to include the bit that Hermione didn't think the children were grown up enough to know about, but if his suspicions were correct they needed to know. Hermione frowned, having a good idea what Harry was going to talk about against her wishes, making her pleased that she brewed a double dose of Dreamless Sleep potion the night before.

"Some schools of thought think that the Druids, in the course of their magical practices, did rituals that included killing or dismembering muggles, squibs or criminal wizards; depending upon the needs of the rituals. Now, I don't tell you this to scare you just to prepare you in case we go up to Stonehenge proper and are meet with a large contingent of possibly malevolent ghosts you won't react and let on that you can see them. Remember, it will be mostly muggles visiting Stonehenge, and they can't see the things that we can." Harry, finishing his brief speech, looked into the children's eyes to make sure they had gotten the message.

Standing off to the side, Hermione was shocked. Harry did have a logical reason for bringing up such a gristly tale. Whenever she tried to talk to Harry about whatever it was she was working on, he just wanted the most titillating and graphic information, which in Harry's defense was usually the most important and interesting part of the project, so Hermione was somewhat leery of whether or not he was going to give Rose and Hugo nightmares and prove Molly and Ginny right in that they shouldn't go out into the muggle world, she was pleased to see it wasn't so.

The children stood and stared at Harry with differing looks on their faces, depending on their ages. James, being the oldest Potter child and the most versed in 'proper' pureblood traditions, thanks to his mother's and grandmother's teachings, tried looking somewhat disinterested in the field trip he was taking along with his siblings but couldn't help the eager smile that was turning up the corners of his mouth.

Albus being the most studious of the Potter children, to Ginny distain didn't usually like going out, preferring to stay home and curl up with a good book. This was something that would cause Ginny to snip that the stork missed the right house and brought her one of Hermione's children, when Albus refused to put down his book and play quidditch when all of the Weasleys would get together. Harry was quick to defend Albus' bookworm tendencies whenever he heard anyone put them down, even Ginny, causing many fights in sound proofed bedrooms when the Potter got home from a Weasley family gathering.

Rose's look somewhere between bored and excited to start, a look that made Hermione both pleased that she and Harry had planned these trips and planning to figure out ways to limit Rose's interaction with Molly, given the fight that she had with her daughter about the girl trying to wear robes into the muggle world. Hermione had set out a smart pair of jeans and a pretty jumper for her daughter to wear into her muggle grandparents world, and had almost floo'd to the Burrow and hexed Molly when Rose's response to Hermione's question as to why her daughter hadn't gotten dressed in the outfit that Hermione had set out for her was, 'Granmum said a proper witch doesn't wear muggle rags'. Hermione quickly got Rose sorted out and managed to meet up with Harry and the Potter before questions could be asked. Still, she and Molly were going to sit down and have a frank 'discussion' when they next met up.

Hearing Harry starting to get ahead of her, Hermione grabbed Rose and Hugo's hands and lead them off towards Stonehenge, pulling at Rose who seemed to be dawdling a bit. When the Weasley's reached the crest of the hill Hermione let out a short scream.

Weaving through the ruins of Stonehenge and the people examining it were the largest amount of ghosts per volume that Hermione had ever seen. All of the ghost seemed to be victims of horrific incidents. Many looked as though their hearts had been gouged out, some were decapitated while other seemed to have been eviscerated and were using their hands to hold on to ghostly entrails. Suddenly, Hermione was glad for Harry's rather gruesome addition to her rather academic explanation of what to expect at Stonehenge.

Hermione turned away to try to get the ghastly images out of her head as well as give the ghosts there the respect that they deserve. Realizing that Harry and his children were down in the mist of the roaming ghosts and James and Albus were probably quite frightened and were more than likely trying to put up a good front after the trouble that Harry went to with Ginny and Molly, Hermione turned to her children.

"Stay up here and don't move until I come back," Hermione ordered Rose and Hugo. Mentally preparing herself so that her face wouldn't show the fact that she was seeing things that the muggles couldn't, Hermione weaved her way to Harry, Teddy, James and Albus; as she got closer to Harry she heard speech that made her groan.

"Uncle Harry this is brilliant!" Teddy exalted as he stared at all of the spirits mingling around, not noticing that Harry seemed to be trying to corral him and the children back towards where Hermione was. Cursing Teddy's Marauder nature Harry, after making sure the rest of the children went back to Hermione, stomped to his godson and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, making said boy let out a squawk that would have embarrassed him if Tori had heard it, and dragged the young man to where Hermione was starting to come forward, leaving her to back up so that she was standing with the other children with a nervous look on her face that counteracted the disgruntled look on the children's faces.

"Alright everyone back to the taxi stand." Harry said in a commanding voice that, while the children didn't understand what was going on, knew not to disobey.

Keeping an eye out to make sure that no one was paying attention to them, Harry and Hermione shepherd the children to the taxi stand, in order to get home. The children put up a slight fight, not wanting to leave now that something interesting had happened. Harry and Hermione, with the promise of another 'Muggle Day' soon, something that seemed much more interesting to the children now than it did that morning, got them to reluctantly leave Stonehenge.

A couple of days later when the family got together at the Burrow for dinner that Sunday, with the rest of the extended Weasley clan, all the talk at the table was about the trip to Stonehenge. The reaction when the children told the rest of the Weasleys went about as you could expect it to; most of the family politely listen but didn't really care, given that they had gotten back alright. There were some outliers; Arthur was avidly listening to anything about the muggle world, Percy was talking about going into the ministry and making sure they knew about the large population of ghost in an area that muggles visited so frequently, while Molly and Ginny were quietly trying to get the rest of the family to side with their opinion that wizards shouldn't go into the muggle world unless absolutely necessary. While the children seem interested in hearing the grisly details from Harry's children and Teddy. It was Fleur that caused conversations to come to a halt with her comment.

"Harry, Hermione; I was wondering if Victoria, Dominique, Louis and I could accompany you on your next outing into the muggle world." Seeing the shocked look on most of the faces at the table Fleur felt the need to explain, especially giving the distrustful look currently adorning Hermione's face.

"When I was a young girl I was sequestered from most places and people, due to the fact that I hadn't gotten a hold on my allure enough to go out into public. You can surely understand how living a life like that made it difficult to experience the wonders of the magical world, much less the muggle one. It is always something I meant to rectify, but unfortunately life got in the way. Now, with your blessing, it appears that I have another chance." Fleur finished talking and sat back smiling at Bill, who had reached out and grabbed her hand in support while she was talking

Hermione was conflicted, hearing the reason behind Fleur's heartfelt plea to join her and Harry muggle excursions made Hermione fell compassion for someone she had always seen as an impediment to her marriage what with how her husband would turn into little more than a drooling idiot in Fleur's presence regardless of how long Ron had known her. With her body image issues Hermione had less than warm familial feeling towards Fleur whenever they were in each other's company, usually at Weasley family gatherings. Seeing the pleading expressing on Fleur's face and hearing the reason behind it had Hermione wavering on her hatred of her French sister-in-law. Still feeling uncertain over how to feel about her relationship with Fleur, Hermione decided on meeting her halfway.

"Let's talk about this after dinner and see if we can come up with a plan that works out for all of us." Hermione replied to Fleur's entreaty. Seeing the smile on the other women's face made Hermione groan, realizing that with how important this seemed to Fleur that she would probably give in regardless of her personal feeling for the women. Looking over and catching Harry's eye, Hermione frowned at her best friend for his part in this mess, all he did was chuckle. Focusing on her dinner, Hermione wondered if trying to expose her children to the muggle world was worth the aggravations that seemed to be coming up.

**A/N****:** So, this is the second time that I have tried to write this chapter. Wrote a good sized chapter that upon re-reading it, realized it was essentially a combination of the first two chapters. Oops.

**A/N 2****:** I realize that modern science has stated differently as to the historic usage of Stonehenge from what I'm writing here. It's called artistic license. To the extent of the research that I've done about Stonehenge; there was a school of thought around the time that this story is set that proposed that Druid rituals (similar to Aztec rituals) were what Stonehenge was used for, that is what this story is representing.

**A/N 3****:** Don't know how many chapters there will be in this story, have an idea of nine locations where they could go, provided that interest stays high. If there is any place you can think of for them to go in Great Britain shoot me a PM and I will try to include it, if it's not already planned.

**A/N 4****:** Don't forget to review; tell me what you think of the story. If you have any ideas of where in the muggle world they should go send them to me, I may already be planning to use them but if I haven't I would appreciate having the information.


	4. Chapter 4

**Gather travelers while you may**

After the excitement that going to Stonehenge produced among the children, coupled with 'conversation' with Molly and Ginny, Harry and Hermione didn't bring up their idea of Muggle outings for roughly a month. It took pleading from both Hugo and James, two cousin whose personalities were as wholly different as could be from each other, working in tandem to break their parents resolve. Harry and Hermione talked about and decided to announce the planned outing at the latest Weasley family supper.

Harry had just returned from getting the bowl of baked potatoes that had been on the counter keeping warm under a Warming charm that Audrey had asked for and place it on the table between them as he sat down. It was soon after that talk turned to Harry and Hermione's trip out to Stonehenge, started by Arthur.

"So Albus, I heard that Harry and Hermione took you to see the ruins of Stonehenge?" Arthur said to his Grandson that sat across the table from him. Molly tried to get Arthur and Albus' attention in order to change the subject but they ignored him. Albus looked at his Grandfather and replied enthusiastically.

"It was really cool Grandpa, we went with Dad and Aunt Hermione, just expecting to see some old crumbly ruins and it was filled with ghosts!" While Fluer, Audrey and Angelina has looks of disgust or concern on their faces, the children had begun to perk up, listening to their cousin and Grandfather's discussion. Not noticing that he'd gained an audience, Albus continued unimpeded.

"It was wicked, the ghost at Stone-whatever had been there so long without wizards being around that they appeared to have lost the ability to talk." Albus was telling Arthur. "They were sorta able to talk by gestures and mouthing words, but their way of talking was so old that only Aunt Hermione really understood what they were trying to say."

At Albus' comment, all attention turned to Hermione, who shrunk back from all the attention momentarily before realizing that there would be no way to get out of this conversation.

"It would appear that the rumor that the druidic wizards' rituals use of human sacrifice turns out to be true. However, since Stonehenge has turn into more of a muggle tourist spot it seems that wizards have either lost or ignored that part of their history." Hermione got an unfriendly look from her mother-in-law for suggesting that there was something that British wizards didn't know about something in their own backyard, not that Hermione notice as she was turn away from Molly when she made this statement.

As Hermione looked from where she sat between Ron and Hugo she noticed that there seemed to be tension between Harry and Ginny, and Mrs. Weasely if she wasn't mistaken. Mentally groaning at the prospect of a peaceful dinner lost, Hermione centered herself, planning to mediate whatever argument was about to break out at the table today.

Harry took the bowl of broiled potatoes that was handed to him by Audrey and dished himself up some before he passed them off to Ginny. Harry ducked his head down and started eating when he heard his mother-in-law talking.

"So James, I guess you can see why you and your cousins and siblings should go out to the muggle attraction that your father and Hermione dragged you children to." Molly stated this as if she were commenting on the weather, her grandson's reply was, to be honest, the opposite of what she expected.

"No, not really Gran, the trip that Dad and Aunt Hermione put together was wicked. We all thought that they were just taking on some boring field trip like you and mum like to do in the summer but we go to an ancient place that druids used to perform all sorts of ghastly rituals and things. There were more ghost there then I have ever seen." This was all stated in a manner that showed that James thought the trip was one of the best things that he had done in the last year.

"It was too bad that Dad and Aunt Hermione dragged us away when everything was getting good." Having finished talking James went back to eating, while having a quiet, whispered conversation with his cousins Molly and Fred, presumably about the 'Muggle Day' trips.

Molly sat back with a huff, this was not how she expected dinner to go. Even worse, it would appear that her dinner table was split in two of people who thought that the outing sounded like something that the kids should be exposed to and those who, like her and Ginny, thought that wizards and witches should stay in the magical world unless absolutely necessary to venture out into the muggle world. The Weasley matriarch was about to speaking and change the subject when she was cut off by Audrey.

"What are your plans for your next muggle outing?" Percy's wife asked Harry, who tensed and shot a startled look towards Hermione. They hadn't really discussed this, with all the trouble Ginny and Molly had been giving them over what went on at Stonehenge. As Harry began to reply to Audrey he was interrupted by Molly.

"I don't know why you would want to go back out into the muggle world; Harry, dear." Molly, not noticing Harry rolling his eyes at how patronizing she sounded, tried agian. "Obviously, your trip to Stonehenge must have showed you and Hermione how much trouble venturing into the muggle world can be, surely this isn't something you want to expose your children to anymore." Sitting back as if what she said settled the matter, with Ginny nodding enthusiastically by Harry side, Molly was quickly frowning from the dissenting opinion of her favorite son, someone she thought would be of a like mind to her way of thinking.

"Actually Mum, I was talking to Minister Shacklebolt about Harry and Hermione informing us about all of the unclassified ghosts that reside at Stonehenge, which led to deliberation in the Wizengamot where it was decided that they were eligible for an Order of Merlin for alerting the ministry about their discovery." Percy informed his mother, causing her and a number of others at the table to have their mouth's hanging open in shock.

Hearing that there were such a large concentration of ghosts at an area that so many muggles visit had Arthur and Percy take notice, Percy was already planning to go into the Ministry and get the ball rolling on getting in contact with the Stonehenge ghosts to make sure that the magical world wasn't inadvertently revealed to the muggle one. Arthur was wondering if he could learn more about the way that muggles acted if he was to go and talk to some of these Stonehenge ghosts. After Percy left to go into the Ministry the dinner sort of broke up as Molly and Ginny went into the kitchen to get the dishes started; Ron, George and some of the kids went outside for a pickup quidditich game out in the orchid behind the Burrow. Harry and Hermione went into the parlor to plan their next muggle outing, unbeknownst to the two they had a shadow accompanying them.

Harry sat down in what was Arthur's customary armchair as Hermione sat down on the couch to the side of it. Hermione was surprised to fell the weight of another body further down the couch, looking up Hermione was annoyed to see Fleur sitting on the other side of the couch. While Ron had gotten slightly better at controlling himself around Fleur he still got slightly moony eyed around the former French witch and it usually required Harry or Fred distracting him for him to develop a tolerance to be in the same room as Fleur and not go moony eyed. While intuitively Hermione realized that Ron's reaction to Fleur was his own fault it felt as if it was some kind of failing on her part that Ron stilled reacted to her the way he did, as such she didn't spend that much time with Fleur unless she had to. As Hermione was opening her mouth to ask Fleur to give her and Harry some space Fleur beat her to the punch.

"Harry, Hermione; I realize that you have a reason for limiting the number of people that you take on your outings to the size that you do, but I am coming to you both to request that you consider allowing me and my children to go along with you to where ever you are going to on your next 'muggle' outing." Seeing the curious look on Harry's face and the hostile one on Hermione's, Fleur continued.

"As you may not be aware, I will give you a primer on the Veela growth cycle." Hermione got an annoyed expression on her face, but the draw of learning something new was too great and she stayed.

"Veela's are a subspecies of humans that are born with abilities similar to Syrians, however our powers of attraction men come from an intangible aura rather than song like our Syrian cousin. Over the years Veela's have managed to use our aura to weed out the weak minded members of those that would be attracted to use in order to not fall into a relationship that would have no meaning other than physical gratification." Here Fleur pause and conjured a water glass and poured some water from her wand into it. Setting down her wand Fleur took a sip of her water as she waited for Harry and Hermione, more so Hermione to come to grips with what she had just revealed.

Hermione, when she first understood what it was that Fleur was saying, was hard pressed not to whip out her wand and hex the French witch. This was the witch that since her fourth year at Hogwarts had been instrumental at making her feel less desirable as a women and was a big part of her 'settling' for Ron and not going for Harry, the wizard she knew she was more suited for. Hearing the pleading in Fleur's voice Hermione calmed down a listened.

"From the time I _matured,_ after I had learn to control it, I had enough control over my allure that I was able to rein it in so that it only affected males who had little to no self-control." This Fleur said with a wince of embarrassment as she knew all too well how her least favorite brother-in-law reacted whenever he saw her. Seeing the understanding look on Hermione's face Fleur carried on before her sister-in-law could completely comprehend what that meant in regards to Ron.

"I am concerned for Victoire's sake. It is believed by some of the more experienced Veela's that have spent a larger amount of time around normal witches and wizards that exposing Veela children repeatedly at a young age can help them develop the ability to have better control over their allure then the normal version of cloistering them, and keeping them away from unrelated males until it is time for them to begin their schooling." Fleur took a deep breath and shot Hermione a look that let the brunette a look that told her that this next statement was important to the blond.

"For the sake of my children I am begging you to allow them, myself included, to accompany you to your next 'muggle outing'." Having stated her case, Fleur sat back in her chair and look at Hermione as if she was trying to read the other women's soul.

Hermione sat in her chair shocked, this was nothing like what she thought the conversation was going to go. Opening her mouth to reply, Hermione was beat to the punch by Harry.

"Fleur, in you would be so kind to give me and Hermione some time along to discuss your request, we will try to get back to you by tonight." Harry calmly spoke, not taking his eyes off of Hermione and he chalk white pallor.

Nodding her head, Fleur got up and after briefly clasping both Hermione and Harry's hands left the two to their conversation.

After Fleur left, Harry turn his chair so that he was better facing Hermione. Seeing the flabbergasted look on his best friend's face, Harry had to hold back a chuckle, knowing that it wouldn't be taken well.

"I see that you're starting to realize that everything I've been trying to tell you about Veela's in general and Fleur in particular is truer than you'd like to admit." Harry commented with a slightly pleased smile on his face.

Harry's comment brought Hermione out of her shock reflection. It was true that she would treat Fleur in a manner that was polite, if cold to some people (Harry). If was more Hermione's insecurities and lack of self-worth than anything that Fleur had done to deserve the treatment that she got from the brunette. Resolving to try to not let her low self-esteem get in the way of getting to know someone who, if her statement was true, was more like herself than Hermione would care to admit. Seeing Harry looking curiously at her, Hermione gave a tentative nod, bringing a smile to her oldest friends face.

"Thank you, I know that this was painful for you. I sincerely hope that you and Fleur are able to discover how good of friends you could be in the intervening days to come." Harry replied.

Seeing Harry walk out of the sitting room towards the rest of the Weasleys, Hermione felt and ball of nerves and apprehension sink in her stomach. While agree to having Fleur accompany them seem like an easy solution in the short term, Hermione felt that it was going to lead to long term difficulties from some members of her family that might lead to the stopping of her and Harry's planned Muggle outings before they even got started.

**A/N****:** While some people may be disappointed that this is not a new location for the family to travel to, for what i want with the story going forward i need a chapter like this to continue the story. Hopefully there will by less chapters like this in the future.

**A/N 2****:** Please review. Thanx.


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